Ch.46Terraforming (3)

# Chapter 46: Terraforming (3)

After the incident where Gaia ran away and almost got hit by a rock.

“How is Gaia’s condition?”

“Aside from exhaustion due to overwork, fatigue, scratches, and bruises, there are no major issues.”

“Hmm… I see. Make sure this story doesn’t spread throughout the ship.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, sir.”

After ensuring that this incident would be kept quiet, I went to check on Gaia, who was hospitalized.

“…”

“I’m… I’m sorry…”

Gaia, with bandages and band-aids all over, combined with her already frail body, looked like a patient on the verge of death.

And this critically ill Gaia was bowing her head and sobbing as soon as she saw me.

Seeing her like this, I felt my heart softening unnecessarily, but…

“Well, you should be sorry.”

“Uuu…”

“When you go out during a storm that’s raging because of your mood, what sin did the people who have to go find you commit?”

“I’m… sorryyyy…”

“Apologize more. If it weren’t for Gaia, my spicy punch would have landed right in your solar plexus.”

Thanks to Riel’s brutal honesty as she stuck close by, I was able to compose myself.

“Riel, that’s enough for now.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And Gaia, I won’t take any disciplinary action regarding this incident.”

“Yes…”

“However, I hope this doesn’t happen again.”

As I turned to leave, I felt the need to add one more thing.

“Your body is an asset of the Empire, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t treat it carelessly.”

“…Yes.”

——————–

After visiting Gaia in the hospital, I returned to my room with Riel and lay down.

But once I was lying down, frustration welled up inside me.

“Hah, what exactly is the problem?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about Gaia. She clearly demonstrated at least fragments of her ability in front of us, so why isn’t it working here?”

“Who knows.”

Seeing her give such unhelpful short answers, I felt the urge to use my etiquette injection rod again after a long time.

“…”

“Wait, I know you’re angry, but what would be the best choice in this situation?”

And Riel, seeing me about to pull out the etiquette injection rod mk4 from my pocket, immediately raised a hand to stop me.

“What is it?”

“I think the best option is to forgive her right away.”

-CLANG!!!

Of course, I had no intention of tolerating such nonsense, so I immediately swung the etiquette injection rod at Riel’s crown.

“Owwww.”

“Be more careful with your words next time.”

“Uuu…”

As I watched Riel rubbing her head in pain, I lay down and once again became lost in thought about Gaia and the current situation.

‘Why isn’t it working… In the original game, you just had to press a button and everything happened automatically.’

But the moment I started thinking like that.

A thought that crossed my mind suddenly focused my attention.

‘Wait, game?’

As I suddenly sat up, Riel was startled and exclaimed.

“What, what is it?!”

“Wait a moment, lock the door and stay here.”

“Huh? Okay.”

With those words, I immediately opened my status window and checked the UI.

However, from Riel’s perspective, I was just touching the air and rolling my eyes around, so she asked with a puzzled face.

“What’s going on all of a sudden? Did a new event pop up?”

And I answered her question with an excited voice, as if I had found something amazing, while continuing my actions.

“No, I just realized that in the original game… Gaia was treated as a kind of system button.”

“Yes.”

“That means, to use Gaia’s abilities… there might be a UI or management system window related to that in the status screen here too.”

Hearing my words, Riel clapped her hands as if it was a brilliant idea.

“You’re right, Minister.”

But as soon as I started searching through the status screen, extreme irritation began to well up in my head.

“Argh, damn this UI.”

“…”

The problem was, as I’ve mentioned before, the status screen UI in this world I’ve fallen into is incredibly complicated.

There’s no alphabetical sorting, and since I can’t use a keyboard or shortcuts, I have to search through everything manually.

[Pause]

Since it seemed like it would take too long, I even used the pause function to thoroughly explore the UI…

And after quite a long time.

I finally succeeded in finding the special menu buried in the terrible UI.

[Resume]

“Found it.”

“Gaia’s menu?”

As I cursed the terrible UI in my mind, I opened Gaia’s menu screen and…

“Oh shit.”

“???”

The moment I opened the menu, a curse involuntarily escaped my mouth.

“What’s wrong, Minister?”

“No, shit, this is ridiculous.”

But anyone who saw the menu screen like I did would realize that all our efforts had been meaningless and feel dejected.

“What? What? What?”

“…Gaia still has a cooldown remaining.”

“Eh?”

The reason Gaia couldn’t terraform wasn’t due to any other problem, but simply because the terraforming cooldown was still active.

And what made it even more absurd was…

[Gaia Terraforming: Cooldown (10 years)]

[Currently unavailable]

[Remaining cooldown: 0001 day]

“How much cooldown is left? 2 years? 1 year?”

“…One day.”

“…”

It said the cooldown would be over tomorrow.

“…Then what was the point of all the futile things we’ve been doing here?”

“I know, right?”

We realized that all the tests we conducted on this satellite were actually meaningless, and we fell silent for a while.

And Riel carefully broke that silence.

“…Well, at least it will end before the Emperor’s ultimatum.”

“Hmm… that’s true.”

I nodded in agreement with Riel’s words.

“That’s good news, isn’t it?”

“Mmm.”

Nevertheless, we both had to carry quite complicated feelings about this awkward situation.

—————————-

The next morning.

And simultaneously the last day of the ultimatum received from Arthraia.

“Uuuu…”

“Hurry up and come out, you mushroom girl.”

“I’m sorry for being a mushroom girl…”

We decided to conduct another test with Gaia, who had turned into an enoki mushroom in just one day.

“Is the Minister giving her another chance?”

“But we’ve already done so many tests without results.”

“This is practically the last one…”

Perhaps because the news that Gaia’s tests had failed had spread widely among the researchers involved in this project.

Even as we brought Gaia, the researchers continued to whisper and discuss this matter.

-Flinch.

“…”

Hearing those voices and seeing their behavior, Gaia became even more dejected.

-Swish.

“…”

“Let’s go quickly, you enoki mushroom.”

“Uwaaa… w-wait a moment, I need to prepare myself mentally…!”

Ricacola, who always spoke her mind, would never leave alone Gaia, whose self-esteem had transformed like a pink-haired guitarist.

Nevertheless, unlike before, Gaia’s appearance at the test site was in a very anxious state…

Perhaps it was because she was standing alone in the center, with all the researchers looking at her with cold eyes devoid of any expectations.

Now she wasn’t even attempting to terraform, just standing there blankly.

And seeing this, a thought quietly emerged in my head.

‘Isn’t this just like bullying?’

“Gaia, begin the test.”

“…”

Of course, following the researchers’ process instructions, she showed signs of hesitantly trying to terraform, but…

Since Gaia’s cooldown was still active, there was no reaction again.

[Gaia Terraforming: Cooldown (10 years)]

[Currently unavailable]

[Remaining cooldown: 0001 day]

‘Wait, it was 1 day yesterday, why is it still 1 day today?’

And with this failure, chicken-tear-sized droplets began to well up in Gaia’s eyes…

Only then realizing the reality, I picked up the microphone and spoke to the earphone that would be in Gaia’s ear.

‘Could it be that it calculates down to hours, minutes, and seconds, but only displays in day units?’

Since my guess seemed likely to be correct, I tried to stall for time.

“Gaia, once today’s test is over, we’ll be heading back soon. Is there anything you want to do?”

“…”

In response to my words, Gaia flinched and trembled, then eventually spoke in a completely deflated, thin voice.

“Someone like me… someone who can’t do anything… what would I want to do…”

Gaia had become something beyond an enoki mushroom.

And seeing this, I continued speaking with the status window open in one part of my vision.

“I understand what you’re thinking, but you don’t need to be so dejected.”

“…Pardon?”

“This whole situation happened because I pushed for it.”

“…”

“Hmm, it’s difficult to put into words, but…”

After pausing for a moment, I saw the cooldown on the status window reach 0 and said:

“Gaia, what I’m saying is that it’s not your fault.”

“…!”

“So let’s try one last time, just once more.”

“…Yes!”

Perhaps my behavior was somehow impressive, as Gaia seemed to regain her confidence(?), attempting terraforming with a loud voice…

And at that moment.

“…Massive energy reaction confirmed!”

“The crust is transforming… no, the geological structure itself is changing!”

“Life signs detected in various locations!”

With the measuring instruments going wild, the researchers expressed their bewilderment.

[Event: Success!]

[Gaia’s terraforming event has succeeded!]

[Gaia’s affection has increased.]

[The nature of Medusa, the satellite of Meregaaran III, is transformed into a paradise!]

Along with status window messages pouring down like fireworks.

Watching all this, I clenched my fist in triumph at the successful result.

—————————–

However, there was one problem…

“Minister, what are we going to do now?”

“Hmm.”

Perhaps because it was our first attempt at terraforming in space.

We, who had no idea what would happen with terraforming, had to experience the results firsthand.

“Archduke Arto, all terrain beyond a 100-meter radius from Gaia… has been completely transformed.”

As the researcher reporting to me said, as soon as we left Gaia’s area… not only did we encounter vast nature.

“Sir, the decoding of the last message from the ship has been completed.”

“What did they say?”

“Due to severe natural disasters, the ship couldn’t withstand it and escaped to orbit.”

“…Anything else?”

“They say that because the landing gear was damaged during the escape, re-entry to the planet is impossible.”

Suddenly stranded on the planet, I had to do my best to manage my expression while rubbing my face.

Of course, this was only when I was with the other researchers…

“Fuck.”

“Calm down, Riel.”

“FUCK.”

Whenever Riel gave me quite serious murderous looks, I had to deliberately look away and pretend not to notice.

And this wild life ended only after several days had passed.